So I’ve tried to update my BlackWidow Ultimate today and the Updater just hanged for half an hour on 0% with no progress.

I’ve decided to restart my PC and the whole keyboard got stuck in bootloader mode.
I’ve found no solution to this on the internet so I’ve started contacting techsupport and my reseller etc.

Luckily I’ve found a solution myself before I’ve started to get into warranty stuff and sending the stuff back to Razer. -.-

So here’s what i did. I’ve installed the Driver 1.0.3 and the Firmware updater 1.0.5 (No not the newer ones, but i assume those could work aswell.)
I’ve manually installed a driver from the Firmware updater’s intallation directory(“bootloader” folder -> RzrBtLdr.inf)
Then i ran the Firmware Updater Again which fixed all of the problems with being stuck in bootloader mode…

So here it is for all the internetz as a possible fix to this problem.

Thank you VERY MUCH!!!!
Blackwidow Ultimate Thai Edition today and broke it in the first hour.
After repair by myself for 5 hours and the seller didn’t know much.
I did by your instruction and it work!!!

You sure you got the right drivers? The ones I have in my post are for the ultimate version and they wont work for the non-ultimate keyboard.

Imo just download the newest drivers for your version of keyboard from razer’s website, then install the bootloader driver through the device manager->update driver or Add Legacy Hardware and install from disk then locate the boorloader’s inf file.

It should work on way or the other. Took me some tries to get it right aswell ;)

oh yeah. did yours appear as unknown device too? coz i have mine @ unknown device after restarting then if i transfer it to another port i get Razor Bootloader with its icon having a small triangle w/ an exclamation mark.

I am trying these steps for the blackwidow stealth edition. I get the keyboard to be recognized as razerbootloader but when I launch the firmware updater it does not recognize the keyboard. I hold in the fn key unplug it and plug it back in and the update starts and finishes but then just keeps looping and starting over. Any ideas?

i think that this JUST PRESS FN thing made my day. can you explain why it does work just by pressing fn? to explain, windows recognized my keyboard (backwidow non ultimate) and I could install the drivers afterwards. thx brickwin!!

Interesting. My blackwidow (non ultimate) stopped working after I cleaned it up with mild cleaning solution. It just showed up in windows as a bootloader after plugging it in. I tried different drivers and firmware updaters. All firmware updaters just kept restarting after 100%. After some three hours of tinkering with the different versions, device manager, plugging the keyboard in and out, having the fn key pressed down ect.. I got fed up and left the latest firmware updater to loop itself (fn key _not_ pressed down). After 10 minutes or so, windows suddenly said it found my blackwidow keyboard :D Strange behaviour indeed. Hope this helps someone.struggling with similar problems.

Had something similar with mine aswell. I’ve thought it was a purely driver/firmware based issue. I’ve tried cleaning the key’s which were double tapping or not registering and now it seems to work a lot better.
Best way is to probably use compressed air to clean the specific mechanical switches.

i have tried fn method but no success, I wil try contacting razer phone support since its free over skype but i cant download firmware updater 1.05 from razer webbsite, it shows 404 could you upload it to mediafire maybe?

i use bwu and have the same problem. firmware 1.05 not availible in that link given above any more. firmwares 1.07 or 1.08 dont even start up for me! still stuck in bootloader mode.. desperately need help!

I fixed it! here are the steps that I did:
0- unplug the keyboard (all connections from keyboard to computer must be unplugged)
1- remove driver from device manager
2- delete synapse, firmware and driver from “add/remove programs” (in control panel)
3- turn pc off and on
4- download and install latest version of synapse (a restart should be done after this)
5- plug the usb cable of keyboard to computer while PRESSING FN KEY.
6- install driver firmware 1.08 and driver 1.05 (latest) -DONT LET FN KEY LOOSE-
7- run firmware updater, if you get “no device detected” error, unplug and re plug the usb cable to the comp while pressing FN KEY.
8- the firmware uptade will start and even after it says “it is done”, the bar will go from 0% to 100% repeatedly. Let it go like this until it says “new hardware detected”
9- In my experience, my keyboard was detected at the second I let FN key loose after 6-7 minutes of looping in firmware update sequence. So you let the key lose after some time and hope it works.

This was more or less my xp of fixing this after 7 hours and countless tries and combinations. At one point I remember also running the driver (exe) in bootloader file. It should be somewhere around steps 5 and 7.

DUDE, YOU ARE A RAZER LIFE SAVER! YOU ROCK! THANKS TO ALL YOUR EFFORT . IT HAS PAID OFF FOR BOTH OF US! AND THANKS TO MY LITTLE LADY. SHE FOUND THIS AND HELPED ME BRING MY BLACK WIDOW ULTIMATE BACK TO LIFE. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! YOU SAVED ME 130.00 BUCKS! YOU ROCK MAN!

I did everything you guys said in the comments but no luck keyboard is sitill recognized and i keep getting code 10 error (either on desktop or laptop) when i try to manually instally the razer bootloader driver.

I was trying to revert back to an old firmware version, given the absolutely ANNOYING latest version of synapse. Unfortunatelly, nothing on earth can get my bwu to work with old firmware. All your hints here make my keyboard not recognized by windows. The only way for it to come alive again, is to install synapse and let it update the firmware. So I guess I will have to live with this annoyiance until a new version of synapse shows up.

The code 10 error, btw, happens because you already have the driver on your pc. If you go to device manager and uninstall the driver (check the ‘remove driver from computer’ box), you can install it fine from the firmware update folder.

As a last resort I’v just uninstalled all drivers from razer, synapse and whatever and just let my keyboard with the default windows drivers.
I’ve bought a couple cans of compressed air and cleaned up the inside of the keyboard as much as possible to make sure there was no contact problems inside the switches i had problems with aswell.

I can live without the functionality of the the left macro keys so i just use it like this and so far i haven’t had problems with the keys double tapping since then.

About the code 10 issue i have never had that one, so can’t really help on that matter. Letting the latest synapse update your firmware should do the trick of fixing the keyboard not recognized issue indeed.

Just gonna leave these posts up here for future reference if anyone runs into these issues mentioned here it should help them out.

I am using Windows 8 and have been using this keyboard for about 1 year until I did a firmware upgrade yesterday on synapse and the process freezes. Now my keyboard is dead and every steps attempted here failed because the updater cannot detect my device.

Any ideas? Also for those who succeeded, can you let me know which Windows OS you are using. This could be due to Windows 8 but I am not sure.

I did the same procedures in a Windows 7 Computer and it didnt work, after a few try. I try it on a windows xp computer and finally it works now, my keyboard is back to life !!!
Thank you very much for posting this !!!

Just upgraded to Windows 8 and it happened to me again. Got a warning about an update that an update was available and 1 second after I clicked OK, I went like NOOOOOO. OK more info as a reminder to myself. Getting the keyboard alive again did not work on Windows 8. I used Windows XP which ran inside a VMWare virtual machine. Also do NOT click search automatic when Windows first tries to install a driver. If you do that you will not be able to install them manually later. Delete the driver, restart Windows and immediately select install manually and use the driver from the Firmware upgrade folder.

I have finally got this to work. For some odd reason none of these steps worked on my desktop, where I had the keyboard originally installed. A couple of months later, I installed synapse on my laptop (windows 8) and plugged in the keyboard while holding the fn key. Synapse detected the keyboard, and replaced the old corrupted firmware.

Thank you guys, finally i made my black widow running again.
if you bump on to error 43, try to update the firmware from other computer.
i got mine working by updating the firmware using synapse on other computer with win 7 OS.

Its late in the night but I still want to comment a big THANK YOU to “ege” I followed it and at the step where the firm ware update was looping from 0-100% i held the FN key down for like 5-10min and when I got bored i let the button go, and was like “damn this shit didnt even work and almost face palmed myself” then all of a sudden MY KEYBOARD LIGHTS TURN ON and guess how happy I was, I am now making this comment thanks to you!

Thought I would post this here in case it helps someone else. I had tried all of the steps suggested here and in many other posts. Nothing seemed to work, the keyboard was never recognized. Windows was saying that my device was “unrecognized usb device”, trying to install the bootloader turned code 10 most of the time, although it did install once after many tries, but it still failed to recognize the device.

What worked? I went to my laptop, installed the 1.08 firmware updater, didn’t install the drivers or anything else, since all I wanted was to flash the firmware on the laptop, then I plugged the keyboard in (no fn key holding or anything) window started installing the device and of course the only driver it found for it was the bootloader, and it installed automatically without any problems. Then I just went ahead and flashed and it was recognized! Keyboard is now working again!! :)

Ok this is fucking incredible ! If everything fail its because you use windows 8 64bits ! . Done the same step under a windows 7 32bits in a vmware with usb controller connected etc . And everytings ok ! . Damn razer suck with 64 bits firmware update …

Hi All, I also had this problem and solved it just a few minute ago. Did as below and I see my Black Widow Ultimate Stealth 2013 come alive again. =)
1-Unplug keyboard
2-Install synapse 2.0
3-plug the keyboard while keep pressing on the “Fn” button. (not sure if really necessary to press the button though)
4-Wait for a while until synapse give a popup message to update its “framework”.
5-Click on update and just wait until 100%. Then another popup come out to update the firmware. there you go! i’m so happy to see the blue backlit on the keyboard. =)

Hi, works for me too by just installing Synapse2.0, then after a few reboots and updates the keyboard just came back to life (after the “framework” update as FaR EaStz already said). No need to hold down Fn key for me.

1) Uninstalled everything Razor related
2) Got the latest firmware update from Razor’s website
3) I used the 1.08 Firmware Update.
4) Held the function key + plugged in to either get an un-updated version of “Razor Bootloader” or “Unknown device”
5) Download the firmware from the link http://rzr.to/rtYkd and install. (Razer_BlackWidow_Ultimate_FirmwareUpdater_v2.05.03)

Done!

This link is for the normal Blackwidow ultimate.
When you contact razer they give you the proper one!

i had same issues. tried all the steps. i got it to show 1.05 driver and updater 1.08 in the control panel programs but keyboard still not recognized or blue lights. the Trick = i plugged it up to an xp netbook that had no razer anything on it -just to recognize it as a HID keyboard and BOOM- blue lights. No MS update or driver screen appeared, it just worked…After that, disconnecting and plugging up to any USB ports[ 2.0 or 3.0] on my win 7 64bit desktop, it worked flawless. It also fixed several other issues – “B” led intermittently going out, not waking from sleep, and most importantly a bad ‘key chattering’ problem where multiple letters not near each other would display by hitting only one key. giddy up…

BTW….this is kinda hard to find a direct line so posting it ..they are EST 12-9pm M-F only
RAZER SUPPORT =
“If you were unable to troubleshoot and resolve any issues you are having with the knowledgebase (FAQ) and you feel your product is still defective, please don’t hesitate to contact us here or call 1-888-697-2037.”